“Is there anything left of it?”
“No. They’re all dead. Colonel Park, her father, General Park, her staff, all the guards. Everyone is dead, except him,” she said gesturing to Rhee Sung.
“And the boy, who’s he?”
“He’s the son of one of the guards. We found him hiding in the rubble. With everyone dead, he’s got no one left.”
“Who killed them? Not you, I hope.”
Connie’s solicitude was clear enough. But her story was beginning to get a little sticky. Ba We had killed most of them. She needed an explanation that would make sense without mentioning him, and one that Rhee Sung might confirm without prior coaching.
“I don’t fully understand it myself. Colonel Park shot a number of her own men when they refused to fight me. She turned out to be pretty ruthless. They may have turned on her after that. I didn’t see much of what happened, but there was a lot of gunfire.”
“Is that how the Parks were killed?”
“No, that was me. The General died by accident, in a crossfire. But I ended up having to fight his daughter to protect Anthony and Li Li. That got pretty nasty.”
“Where was their operation located?” Connie pressed on.
“I don’t know my way around Petropavlosk. We left in a hurry, you know. I don’t really know where it was. I set fire to the place as we were leaving, burnt it to the ground. There’s nothing left.”
Emily wanted her to see how weary she was of these sorts of questions. She let out a long, tired breath.
“Can we talk about happier things, you know, like the prom.”
Connie laughed.
“Sorry about that,” she offered as she looked her up and down. “Those bruises might not match your prom dress, unless it’s purple,” she said with a smile. “Who’s your date? Danny?”
Emily nodded.
“You think they’ll have faded in… what day is it anyway?”
Connie showed her the calendar on her cell phone.
“In ten days?”
“Yeah, mostly. The ones on your face, probably. You have any on your arms or legs?”
Emily rolled up her pants to reveal a huge purple splotch on her knee.
“Ouch. That’ll take a bit longer, I think.”
“Look at my hands,” Emily said, with a mock sob.
Connie pretended to be shocked.
“Come on, girl. We’ve gotta get you cleaned up.”
She showed her to the Captain’s cabin, which had its own shower.
“He won’t mind. He’s an old friend. I’ll bring you a change of clothes. Then we’ll find some lotion for your hands.”
The shower felt like catharsis. She may have lingered a little too long for the water supply on a ship this size. Maybe no one will notice, she thought. They were back at the base on Attu in time for a quick dinner and then onto a small jet for Anchorage, and finally a larger plane to Seattle, where they touched down just before two in the morning.
Emily insisted on spending the night in an airport hotel, in part so she could arrange to call Danny during lunch at school, but mainly so she could see Rhee Sung board a non-stop, commercial flight to Seoul early the next morning. She was immoveable on this point with Michael and Connie. She had to take him to the gate and watch the plane take off, with him on it.
At the ticket counter for Korean Airlines she shooed Connie and the security people away so she could speak privately to the girl behind the counter. Here was a perfectly random person, with no connection to Connie or Michael, or any intelligence agency, who spoke Korean and English. At least, this was her best chance to find such a person.
“Can you tell him something for me?” she asked with a gesture to Rhee Sung. When the girl nodded she said: “Tell him to forget about the rock, Ba We.”
The girl looked puzzled, but translated for her. He looked like he was beginning to understand.
“Tell him it’s our little secret, for nobody else.”
When the girl finished translating, Emily pulled him aside, placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. She wanted to show him the fire he had seen that first day in the cell. He blanched and tried to look away. She shook him, and then flashed him a kindlier smile. Then she pressed her finger to her lips. He nodded. She was clearly a conundrum to him, both a terrifying angel of death and the charming beauty who brought him such good luck. Whichever one she really was, he knew better than to disobey her.
Of course, she knew Connie would suspect she was concealing something about what happened in Kamchatka, and that the little Korean probably knew what it was. Would she track him down in Seoul later and sweat the information out of him? Emily hoped she would let this secret alone.
Later that morning, Emily watched the clock like a hawk. She’d calculated that her friends would all be together in the cafeteria at roughly nine thirty five Seattle time. When Danny didn’t pick up—perhaps his battery was dead, or maybe he’d left it home—she tried Wendy’s number.
~~~~~~~
Emily had been gone five days, and the grief and fear had taken its toll on her friends. It didn’t take long for them to find each other’s company too painful a reminder of the loss. They no longer sat together at lunch. None of them wanted to go to the prom anymore. Wendy’s search for blue shoes in Melanie’s size turned out to be a wasted errand. When the phone in her pocket vibrated, she pulled it out mechanically.
“Wendy, it’s me,” a small, almost embarrassed, voice said. The words didn’t quite register even though, or perhaps because the voice was so familiar. When it finally dawned on her who it was, she found it difficult to breathe.
“Wendy, are you there? It’s me, Emily.”
“Oh my God,” she replied frantically. “You’re alive! How? Where?... Where are you?” she asked convulsively, craning her neck to see if her friend was about to sneak up on her.
“I’m in Seattle. I’ll be back late tonight. Hand the phone to Danny, okay?”
“He’s not here, Em. Nobody’s here.”
She explained how they had fled from each other. Wayne and Billy were probably in the weight room, pumping iron in silence. Danny was most likely in the library, studying with an intensity she had never seen in him before.
“It just wasn’t the same without you.”
“I’m so sorry,” Emily said. “I didn’t mean to scare you guys or anything.”
“What the hell are you apologizing for?! You’re alive! I can barely believe it. The guys’ll be so relieved, so happy to hear it. I’ll go find them and spread the news.”
But one friend was still in the cafeteria and had noticed Wendy’s excitement. Melanie had retreated to Amanda’s table the last couple of days, seeking relief in the company of an old friend. Comfort was freely offered, but of limited value, since she felt unable to share the true dimensions of the catastrophe with anyone else.
She sidled up and sat down next to Wendy who, as soon as she saw her, handed over the phone without any explanation. She melted into tears at the first sound of Emily’s voice and barely heard anything beyond the fact that she was almost home.
“Oh, Emily,” she sobbed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m a little more bruised up than usual, Mel. And my hair is,… well, Danny and I cut it all off before I left. You and Wendy are gonna have to help me figure out what to do about the prom.”
The two girls laughed and hugged through their tears. And then they went in search of the boys. Danny was dragged from the library so he could hear her voice. Then the three of them searched out Billy and Wayne with the good news. Of course, Wayne insisted on meeting her at the airport, despite all objections from his friends. In the end, Emily prevailed on him to let her mom and Andie have that pleasure to themselves.
-back to top-
Chapter 26
Homecoming
Li Li sat patiently on the bed next to her uncle, little feet dangling. The reverberations of a delicious commotion made their way upstairs and int
o her ears. She desperately wanted to go see what mischief Dol might be getting in to. But Jiang held her back, anxious for her to understand that these people were friends, that she could trust them, especially the big girl, Emily, that her father had trusted her as much as one could trust someone who was not family. He was preparing to leave her with Emily. His own life was going to be too dangerous for Li Li to share it, at least for the next few years.
Andie had already assured him she could stay with them. They would keep her safe, give her a home, even love her. She knew Jiang had been an enemy only a few months earlier, part of a team hunting her family. Emily had performed some sort of alchemy on him, which none of them really understood. She had bound him to their interests more closely than he could ever have anticipated.
He told her to be a good girl, to obey the adults of the house, and above all to do whatever Emily says. That’s what her father and mother would want her to do.
“Emirly,” she said, with the watery sound of the L sticking in her mouth uncomfortably. Somehow it didn’t sound quite like it did when Anthony said it. For some reason it wasn’t supposed to sound like the Ls in her own name. This was a deep mystery to both of them.
“Emirly,” Jiang said with a smile.
“Emirly,” she repeated.
The owner of the name was leaning against the railing just outside the bedroom door listening with a smile. It was after all her room Jiang was using during his convalescence. At last she could wait no longer.
“Just call me Em,” she said, sticking her head in the door laughing.
“Emmy,” giggled Li Li as she threw her arms around Emily’s legs.
She scooped her up and held her face to face for just a second, then put the squirming little pixie down.
“Go find Dol,” she commanded and Li Li ran out of the room with a shriek.
She clearly understood at least one word in that last sentence. In time, she would learn to speak English. But for now they all relied on natural sympathy to communicate with her.
Jiang was leaving in a few days, as soon as he was strong enough. He had some work to do which he didn’t care to discuss with anyone. Everyone assumed he meant to build a new life for himself and Li Li, which might entail making peace with his old masters. They all hoped he wasn’t thinking of wreaking some sort of revenge, since that would likely only result in his own destruction. But whatever it was, they had to let him go his own way for now.
“You have done much for my family,” he sighed eyeing her bruises. “The debt is too great ever to repay.”
“Li Li is no burden. She’s my obligation. Isn’t the saying whoever saves a life is responsible for it?” Jiang smiled at her.
“That refers to criminals and debtors. Save one of them and you take on their debts.”
Dol was another story. He wasn’t a cute little girl. He was an energetic troublesome boy. Still, since Emily asked, Andie acquiesced. She would take a kangaroo or an octopus or even a crocodile (well, maybe not a crocodile) into her house if Emily asked it of her. That was the degree of ascendancy she had attained in everyone’s estimation. Perhaps it would fade in time, but for now her word was little short of law on the estate.
The boy would stay with them, be raised by them for as long as Emily needed him to be there. In the meantime she was determined to prevent any inquiry into his identity until she first satisfied herself as to who or what he really was. This was a question even more important to her just now than the analogous one concerning herself. There may have been just a little irony in her thinking her mother could prove essential to both inquiries. Maybe that’s why she seemed reluctant to press her just yet. She was looking for the right moment, which may just be another way of saying she was stalling.
~~~~~~~
Wayne was as good as his word. No force on earth could keep him from coming to Charlottesville to see Emily the next afternoon: not Billy, not Wendy or Melanie, and certainly not Danny. Of course, they hardly tried to restrain him.
But the night she arrived and the next morning belonged to Yuki and Andie. They met her at the local airport just north of town. Seeing Anthony running across the tarmac into his mother’s arms was a redemptive experience for everyone.
Emily followed behind with two small children clinging to her legs, tired from all the traveling, and perhaps a little frightened by the strange new sights and people. Everyone was charmed by Li Li, pretty as a picture peeking out from behind Emily’s legs. They were surprised to see Dol. He glowered angrily over Li Li’s shoulder. Anthony went back to pick up Li Li, and before Dol could protest Emily scooped him up. He still squawked, but somehow Emily worked like a giant pacifier. Eventually he put his head down on her shoulder and dozed off.
After the thrill of seeing the children dimmed down, nothing remained to distract from the shock of seeing Emily. She looked weary and careworn, her face swollen, a large bruise spreading under one eye, an obvious limp favoring her right leg. She had been through hell and was clearly the worse for it. The magnitude of what she had endured to rescue her son began to be agonizingly apparent to Andie, just as what it cost her was apparent to Yuki.
Her friends saw the same things the next day, the bruises, the limp, the weariness. The girls were horrified, of course, and also for the hair, which they were now seeing for the first time. But for some reason seeing Li Li there brought Melanie some relief. She was so pretty and so little. The instinct to protect her flashed through all of them, even the boys. The devil’s bargain Emily had obviously made to rescue her suddenly looked less unreasonable. Through it all Danny remained aloof, holding himself aside, not saying anything. At the first opportunity, Wendy got them all to take the children out on the patio and give Emily some space to breathe.
~~~~~~~
Emily pulled Danny aside and motioned to the front door. He shuffled along after her, eyes glued to his shoes.
“Having second thoughts about that prom date?” she needled him. As soon as he looked up, she saw his face and regretted it. “Ethan told me all about Jesse. We’re having a memorial for him tomorrow. You should come.” Danny nodded his head.
“I never saw anyone die before.”
“It’s not your fault. What could you have done?”
“I don’t mean that. Jesse was gone before I made it over to him. I mean the sniper. We were struggling, and he was gonna stab me, and then Ethan shot him, and I watched him die. He just faded away right before my eyes.”
Of course, she knew just what he was talking about. She’d seen it so often that it had begun to seem almost routine. If only she could she peer into his eyes and recover what it was like to be disturbed by death.
“You’ve gotta let that go. Ethan told me how you saved him, and Jiang too. Thank you for that.”
She held her hand to the back of his neck as she said this. He wanted to look at her and take comfort in the way his actions fit the beauty of her eyes. He wished for a sentimental convergence of courage and love, a dream of chivalry. But all he saw was the ordeal she had just been through.
“What happened after they took you?”
“Do you really want to know?” she replied after a moment or two.
It would cost him something to hear it, she thought. Maybe more than he could afford. But he’d never really understand her, if she kept it all hidden.
“Yes,” he said.
She had to think carefully, to find a suitable filter. A straight recitation would be unbearable.
“What you saw in that guy’s eyes, you know, when he died, I saw that many times over.”
She didn’t say “I’ve gotten used to it,” because even though she feared it was true, she couldn’t bear to admit it to someone else yet.
“Did you kill people?”
“Everyone who was there, the ones who took Anthony and Li Li, they’re all dead. But I didn’t kill them.”
“What about Miss Park?”
She sighed, and worried over how to reply.
�
�I think you mean Colonel Soon-ee Park. She was an officer in the North Korean Security Service. I fought her to protect Anthony and Li Li. She stood between us and freedom. Now she’s dead. I took her clothes and the children and fled.” She tried as hard as she could to finesse the point. But the subterfuge seemed more painful than the truth. Finally, she admitted it: “I killed her.”
“Are you worried they’ll come after you?”
“There’s nothing left of her operation. They’re all dead. That’s why I let them take me. I had to make sure they were destroyed. All of them. And now they are.”
“I’m glad that’s over. You’re safe now, right?”
Emily looked at him from the side as he shook his weary head. Should she tell him?
“You remember the guy you watched die? Can you describe him?”
He thought for a moment, and then it was as if a switch was flipped in his mind.
“He wasn’t Asian! He definitely wasn’t Korean then. He must have been American.”
She looked at him with a wan smile.
“It’s not over, then, is it?” he groaned in resignation.
“Nope. There’s still a wolf or two in the sheepfold. But let’s not worry about them now.”
They had wandered pretty far into the woods by this point, and were now out of sight of the house. She sat down on a fallen log and invited him to sit next to her.
“I’m not made of glass, you know. You’re not gonna break me.”
He laughed and slid down the log to be next to her.
“So do you still want to go to the prom, with me looking like this?”
“I’m game if you are,” he replied with a merry challenge in his voice as he took her hand.
“Then it’s a date. Though your mom might not be as thrilled about it as she once was. We’ll be the scariest couple there.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said mischievously. “We’re a shoo in for king and queen!”
They both laughed, but then she turned serious for a moment.
Girl Punches Out Page 22
